Thursday, 30 January 2014

I've never been one to just receive one 'main' present from one person at Christmas. I've (somehow) become the girl that is a 'bits n bobs' kinda person when it come's to receiving gifts. My boyfriend always gets me a 'main' present, then lots of little bits and bobs to go with it, and his family seem to have adopted this pattern as well. So it wasn't no surprise that from both his mum and sister, I had lots of smaller gifts to unwrap this Christmas, this being one of them:

Although this isn't a 'brand' name as such, I couldn't not swoon over the cute packaging.. I mean c'mon, how could you not like that cupcake tin? I haven't a clue what I'm going to store in it yet, but that alone deserves a mention. I love the whole vintage take as well..

The boxed body lotion did not come in the tin, but as a separate gift, however because it was all from the same brand, I thought I would pop it in! Without being too judgmental, I didn't have high expectations of this behind the cutesy packaging. I thought the bubble bath would be only lightly scented and produce a pitiful worth of bubbles, and the body moisturizer would be so thin on the ground and greasy that I'd just stick it in my drawer to never see the light of day again. However, I was pleasantly surprised!

Minus the tall body lotion and plus a body soufflé that I accidentally missed out on the photo, this was the contents of the tin. I'm not a fan of bath fizzers so I quickly got that out the way with first and used it up before it gathered dust. All the products smelt of cakes (really!). So sweet and feminine. The moisturizer I am really happy with. The consistency is perfect, and absorbs into the skin very quickly considering! The bubble bath produced loads of bubbles, although I will admit, the scent didn't hang around for too long before it vanished.

Overall, taking a rough estimate at the full price of this, I think it serves well. (Purchased from wilko's).

Have you received any cheap products that you've been impressed with? I guess its not always higher priced products that cut the barrel!

Sunday, 26 January 2014

I remember when I first saw ankle wellies.. I thought they were cute yet bizarre. Fast forward a year or two and I spotted these in the F&F sale for a mere £5. How could I resist that?!

I have annoyingly wide calves so often struggle to get boots and wellies to fit me in the leg, so these are perfect. They are practical both for the yucky rainy snowy weather we have in England, but I can imagine these to be quite versatile due to the colour as well.. and the little flecks of glitter? Well.. that's just a bonus!

I can't wait to go on a few country walks with these! I'm scared that once I start wearing these, I wont stop!

Friday, 24 January 2014

I almost never wrote this post, but then I thought to mark the end of an era and all that..

So I have been with GlossyBox right from Day 1, which I believe was right back in May 2011. I've never missed a box but I can honestly say, as the months have passed by, the Wow factor has decreased massively. Not because the novelty has worn off (because believe me, I still get excited every time I receive a new box), but the effort (or lack of) they seem to put into it.

Every once in a while, they'd put a 'Wow factor' box out there, maybe to keep people interested, and to grab everyone's attention back, but then it'd go straight back downhill for months after that. Products started to become not so luxury, but instead High Street products that you could pick up for a few quid. That took the excitement and luxury out of it. A part of being subscribed to a beauty box was the excitement of knowing you owned an item that was worth a few bob. Even if no one else knows, there's a feeling of almost contentment inside knowing that, on your bathroom shelf sits a cream that's worth £60 full size (whether it does the job or not is a different matter!). As well as receiving cheaper products, they'd also be teamed with sample size (and I mean sample squirt-the-perfume-4-times-and-its-gone-size), not to mention the fact that you'd probably be able to pick it up for free at your local boots. Occasionally you'd receive a decent sample size perfume bottle, one that would last you a weeks holiday, now those; they were good.
Another problem that I saw happening more and more - repeat products, or products that were the same brand, but just a slight different version, or colour. I've lost count of the amount of mineral based eyeshadows/bronzers/blushers I received in those miniature pots that are too small to even get a brush in.

Glossy did do a handful of products that stood out, the first one being the NARS item which I received in their first ever box.

I will say in terms of packaging, Glossy beats Birchbox hands down. They now have a new improved box (which, would you believe, is finally glossy!) and slightly larger of size. I love these boxes, and have created them into my own storage boxes for beauty items, labeling them individually and stacking them in my dressing room. I have also wrapped many of these in pretty paper and given them as gifts (not the box, but full with items!). Birchbox on the other hand, the box, although strong, was of a cardboard material (to look at visually too) and it is of an awkward size which prevents you from putting full size products in.

Half way during my time with Glossy, I also subscribed to Birchbox. Just like Glossy, this occasionally had (and still has) its bad months whereby it doesn't hit all the right notes, however this is rare compared to Glossy. I usually receive 6 items with Birchbox (sometimes 7), one being a lifestyle item (i.e. food/drink/hair item), and admittedly its not often you receive a full size product, however you do receive a lot of, what I call 'half sizes' - more 75ml products, and this I like.

I understand that it would be impossible for these companies to suit everyone, every month, its just not going to happen. But I felt like less and less effort was being put into them, they were struggling to get hold of new brands to promote their items and it just wasn't drawing me in.

For these reasons, and the fact that I'm trying to save money this year, I have cancelled my subscription and have decided to work on getting through my stash of products. I am still in receipt of Birchbox.. I wouldn't be able to cancel them both.. who would treat me each month then?!

Here is jut a quick round-up of this months Glossy Box, which was 'Back to Basics'. I was so glad this was a poor box because it made it so much easier for me to justify unsubscribing!

L-R
Vaseline Clean Feeling Lotion. Definitely not a wow product for me knowing I can go collect it from Superdrug for a few pounds. I've tried this on my skin and the consistency is really thin. The scent is non-existent and it left my skin feeling pretty tacky.
Balance Me Super Toning Body Wash - Again, the brand didn't make my eyes pop knowing I could pick it up from Boots. The smell is fairly oriental and woody, which is not my cup of tea. Its a good size however to take on a weekend away.
Yu-Be Moisturising Skin Cream. This originates from Japan and they swear by it over there. As soon as I saw this I was disappointed because I only received a sample of this about 5 months ago so its nothing new. Not only that.. there were 2 of them! I suppose the good thing is they can be used anywhere on the body that is suffering from dry skin.
Anatomicals Puffy The Eye Bag Slayer. I know this brand is stocked in Tescos. These do look intriguing - You get 2 packs (2 applications worth) which are in a vacuum packed sachet. The eye pads are surrounded by water (of some sort) which I'm guessing keeps them moist and consists of those magic ingredients! These claim to reduce under-eye puffiness, dark circles and helps prevent under eye ageing. I thought they would be some form of tissue material but from the packaging, they look almost plastic/silicone, so I am rather curious about these.
The Vintage Company Tweezers. Pretty floral tweezers, but do I use tweezers? No, because I'm a wimp! So these £8 tweezers will either get passed onto someone else or sold.... or maybe put in a giveaway? Who knows.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

I'm almost at the end of my Florida series now, and I've left the best till last.

Today I'm going to cast my mind back to my day in Islands of Adventure. Now this was a new park to me. The last time I went to Florida I was 13 and I can't remember if this park even existed. This is part of Universal Studios, although a separate park altogether, it's the 'sister' if you like. However they are right next door to each other and kinda merge into one at the entrance, so it's really easy access if you want to switch between the two parks half way throughout your day (this is what we did).

This park was much the excitement for my boyfriend as it has a Marvel Superhero Island, so all things comic and superhero - my boyfriend was in his element. Every so often Spiderman would run across the road when you were least expecting it, and you'd all scurry around him to have your photo taken. The Spiderman ride was actually one of my favourite of this park, SO good and something you know you'd never experience back in the UK. The special effects were amazing and I recommend anyone who is going to definitely check out this ride, no matter how long the queue is. Speaking of queues, we paid an extra $40 to get priority queuing. Most times it benefited us but other times they weren't really needed. The Incredible Hulk Coaster was also in this section - I'm not usually a fan of rollercoasters but this one was different to the rest, and I can't put my finger on why now (because its been too long!) but I remember coming off the ride thinking 'I wouldn't mind doing that again later'.

Toon Lagoon was also a favourite of mine - it was full of larger than life cartoon characters and random animated objects that could be used as photo props. There were little waterfalls that were dotted all over the place that you could either play in or just briefly walk through for a cool down! Toon Town had 2 main water rides - Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls, which was a log flume type right, with a fantastic drop at the end! They also had Popeye and Blutos Bilge-Rat Barges which was a raft ride. This wasn't as good as Dudley's, but was still fun and lasted a long time (which is always a bonus!). I remember getting absolutely soaked on this ride though, and my feet were squelching for a good few hours after! There was also Olive's boat for kids to play on with water guns etc, but for obvious reasons I didn't see this part..

The Jurassic Park section was another one of my faves, purely because of the River Adventure. Its set out just like it is on the film, you go through ponds and random dinosaurs are popping up out of the water. You then enter the lab (or whatever it was! It looked familiar from the film though!) and you see them at work experimenting... you know something is about to happen and your excitement/anxiety builds up as the suspense gets too much.. then... I'm not going to spoil it for you, but lets just say the ending is amazing!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Now I've never been a huge fan of this.. I've watched some of the films but I can either take or leave it, so I might not have appreciated this as much as the fans would. However as you can imagine, this part was created just like the film. The Hogwarts Express was there, the castles with the snow topped roofs (full size) and a few rides that all related to the film in some way. I remember riding on these but can't remember too much about them. What I will say though is I was really impressed with how much detail they put into their shops in this section. Every shop was related to Harry Potter, but what was inside the shops for 'decoration' was fab - their window displays were full of jars of (what looked like) green gunk/slime with random fleshy looking things inside, the ceilings of these shops had loads of things attached to them. Magic wands dancing, hands that would grab you.. so much that I can't remember. We actually had dinner in Harry Potter land, and even the restaurants are Harry Potter themed (right down to the food and drink!). Mike got a butter beer (I wasn't brave enough, until I realized it wasn't actually real beer but tasted like icecream soda instead, doh!).

The other 2 sections were The Lost Continent (which contained things like ancient temples, Poseidon etc), and Seuss Landing, which was dedicated more for children.

This park was by far one of my top ones during my stay. It had a good balance of everything, and writing this has helped me to re-live it in my head all over again!

Are you going to Florida this year? Make sure this is on your theme park list!

Friday, 17 January 2014

I've felt like it's been an age and a day since my last beauty box, so this one was much awaited for!

This box is based on our New Years Resolutions. It's focus is instead of setting ourselves massive targets that we are almost 100% going to fail, to instead set ourselves smaller ones, or 'tweaks' as they have referred to them, but tweaks that by the years end, have had a big impact on our life. Looking at resolutions as tiny bitesize pieces instead of one annual huge target is a little less daunting and something that we are more liable to achieve.

The first thing I noticed about this box is they have changed their internal packaging slightly. Instead of receiving the fabric drawstring bag, they were placed in baby pink tissue paper instead. Personally I find this more useful (recycling for gifts!). The drawstring bags I struggled to find a use for, and just used to keep them for the sake of it. I think I used one once, and that was for a weekend away to put dirty underwear in! I'd be intrigued to what you use yours for, so pop a comment below!

I was really happy with this box due to the variety. It really has got THE perfect array of products for every part of your beauty regime - hair, body, face and health. Not to mention the cult product that has been doing its rounds for the last month or so in the blogosphere.

From L-R

Phillip Kingsley Moisture Balance Conditioner - I've literally just finished a Phillip Kingsley Moisture mask, and as you know, I'm not massive on hair products, so although this wasn't the most exciting product, I know my hair could do with any savior product at the moment because it's feeling horrible. The only downside to this product is its only 20ml, so it'll just cover one application and that's it (and maybe not even that due to the length of my hair!) so I won't be able to give this a proper trial run to see if I like it.

Benefit PoreFessional. I love silky primers, and although I'm not excited to try this out as such (mainly because I'm actually trialing a primer at present which I think is amazing, so I've become quite comfortable with that), I do however like the concept that I have received a Benefit item in general, mainly because its nice to recognize and receive a well loved brand.

Rodial GlamTox (Night). Although this specifies 'Night' on the tube, it does state it can be worn in the morning instead. It claims to smooth over complexion and plump fine lines. It retails at £75 for a full size so something must be good about it!

Vasanti Detox Facial Cleanser. I'm excited to try this out because it states it is a foam cleanser, which I love. It claims to wash away toxins and 'any last traces of foundation' which I always seem to have lingering on my skin.

Premae Anatomy Nutrients Instant Renewal Body Oil. I've really got into my body creams of late. Whether because I know I'm on a mission to reduce my ever-growing stash of them or not, I don't know! But either way, I've got into the habit of applying creams to my body (almost) after every bath/shower. I do have a body shop body oil in my stash that I rarely touch, and I do tend to prefer to wear oils more in the summer, maybe on my legs to give them a bit of a sheen too, because I don't like feeling too greasy, however I am looking forward to giving this a whirl. It claims to not only moisturize, but tone and detoxify the skin too.

Itsu Miso Soup. All previous food samples I have been sent via Birchbox, I can honestly say I haven't liked. I have received quite a few herbal teabags before which I'm really not a fan of. This soup has intrigued me because instead of it being a powder, its a paste. It also claims to be only 42kcals, so although its good health wise, low calorie food doesn't always taste the best, c'mon, admit it! I will however fetch this to work with me to try out (tomorrow, maybe!) and give it a whirl. It states a few ingredients on it (wakame, spring onion and tofu) so so far, I'm not convinced! It's also £2.25 for 3 sachets which I think is a little pricey!

Sunday, 5 January 2014

With a brand spanking new year being only a matter of hours away, I thought I'd take this time to reflect over 2013 to see what it brought...

Travel - I had to look over photos in order to remind me what has actually happened this year and noticed I've done my fair share of travelling. June saw me go on the biggest and most anticipated holiday of them all - Florida, something that I'm actually still halfway through blogging about now. This holiday brought back so many childhood memories which have almost been erased and replaced, which is sad. The holiday also stamp-marked a few issues with my family and made me open my eyes to others personalities; something of which I will not discuss on here but was a turning point for me. A month later both me and my boyfriend spent a few days in Manchester in a gorgeous hotel for his 30th birthday. A month later I was lucky enough to win an all inclusive holiday to Turkey, so we jetted off again to spend a week in the Autumn sunshine. No sooner had we landed on English soil, we were trotting off to London for a few days, mainly so my boyfriend could go to Comic-con (another birthday present). Fast forward 4 weeks and I had won yet another competition to go back to London for an all expense paid trip to Pineapple Studios (which included a dance class, being judged by Arlene Phillips(!), tea at The Hilton, West End show (Billy Elliot FYI) and a hotel). So all in all, 2013 has been rather kind to me on the travel front!

Family/Relationships - Without going into TMI, I have almost learnt to accept an ongoing issue with my boyfriend. It's been hard, and at times I've come close to ending our relationship but I have to remind myself that no-ones relationship is 100% perfect, no matter how flawless it appears on the outside.
My mum moved house - a house I'd spent the last 8yrs of my life in before moving into my own home. This is the first home of my mums that I officially have never lived in (or never will). In a strange way, that thought is a little scary. It's a reminder that I'm an adult and will never live with my mum again. I have lived in my own home 2.5yrs and never had a problem with it till my mum actually moved, and the above thought then entered my head. Silly little thought process I have!
My niece is growing up way too quick and I only realized it a few days ago after not having seen her for 5 months. I noticed how her speech has developed and she is stringing sentences together a lot more now, and saying things that you wouldn't expect a 3 and half yr old to say! This saddened me a little, even though she isn't my child. She's growing up and slowly losing her baby cuteness.

Work Life - I have come to a point at work where I feel I am just plodding, and hitting the 'stop' button one too many times now. Lots of things have changed, and still are changing. It seems new rules are constantly being put in place and management appear a lot more stricter which is making it a more 'nervy' place to work (for reasons I wont go into on here). My actual job role I feel I have lost all love for to the point of almost not caring at all. I remember when I first started my job, hand on heart, I used to love it. Then as a year or 2 passed, this 'love' turned into 'ok', fast forward another 2 years, has now turned into 'dread'. I count the hours down each day which is not how I want to live.

Hobbies/Interests - For those that don't know, I'm a comper in my spare time, and this year has been the biggest so far in terms of prizes (which makes sense, considering the time and effort I've put into it!). It's paid off a lot though, and I've won some really good stuff (which I'm contemplating doing a blog post on). It gives me such a buzz and I've become addicted. Unfortunately its a time consuming hobby so I'm trying to make the most of it before I have children! I sometimes even struggle to do it just with a full time job and running a house! My other interests are obviously blogging. The last few months I've become addicted to reading certain bloggers (which can be quite time consuming but so inspirational!). I do try and blog as much as I can but comping takes first priority with me a lot of the times. As of a few days ago (Christmas day, to be exact) I also adopted another hobby, something I've been wanting to get into for a long time, sewing! My boyfriend kindly bought me a sewing machine which I've already spent a fair few hours on. Soon I wont have any spare time left! Its still early days yet but I aim to be making small home accessories by the summer. 2013 was also the year I decided to hang up my camera (and tripod!) and call it a day with filming Youtube videos. It was taking up too much of my time, and although I do miss it at times, I never closed the door completely, and promised to be back with the odd Primark Haul (which I have in fact footage waiting on my camera from a month or so ago, oops!). I do still upload my travel videos there though, when I have the time.

Health - This is a bit of a sore subject with me. Health wise I'm ok - I'm quite lucky in the fact that I've never had anything 'wrong' with me. I never visit the Dr simply because the majority of the time, I feel fine. However my weight is a different story. I'm piling the pounds on by the month and noticing clothes getting tighter and tighter, however the last few months, I've been in a strange (and arguably) worrying frame of mind. The frame of mind where I don't care how much I eat, it doesn't matter, the weight wont show, one more wont hurt, 2, 3, 5, 10 more wont hurt. It wont matter because I'm already 'chubby' so another 10 chocolates isn't going to make a difference. I've done no exercise since I care to remember, but there's been no guilt there, with any of it. This obviously makes it harder if I did want to try and do something about it, but now I feel if I do do something, I'll lose motivation, because deep down, I don't feel ready, but then my state of mind at present, I never will feel ready, therefore just getting bigger and bigger. Small tasks I'm noticing are becoming more effort now. I've lost pretty much all love for clothes shopping at the minute because I know I'll just find it depressing. Woah - I've gone off on a tangent! In conclusion (!) - 2013 has been a bad year for healthy eating. I haven't stepped on the scales for approx 5 months now (I was a weekly 'weigher-inner' before). I do have one short term plan for the new year to give my body a detox but after that, I'm not sure where I'll go...

All in all, 2013 hasn't been too bad to me! Fortunately for me, the majority of 'negative' things that have/are happening in my life, Iam in control of, and I can change, which I am thankful for. It could be much, much worse.

Friday, 3 January 2014

I picked these up when they were on offer in Superdrug about a month ago. I saved them for Christmas time (despite the lack of festiveness!). I'm not actually a fan of leopard print, but it was the colours that drew me to these.

Application

I love the fact that these, for the most part, are hassle free to apply. No messing about with glue, so they can be done on the go with no sticky fingers! It did take me a while to get used to peeling the stickers, and I initially found this quite time consuming, however I soon found a knack of how to do it. The nails were helpfully numbered, with a small 'tag' attached to each nail which helps guide you to ensure accurate application to each hand. These 'tags' were easily snapped off. I did sometimes find certain fingers didn't have a suitable sized sticker to match, although I've got very petite nails so this is a common problem for me. All large nails and stickers end up getting wasted because they're way too big for even my thumb. However I just had to work with what I had.

Longevity

I applied these the night before Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve morning came and I woke to find that one had come off during my sleep, which didn't bother me too much as the others still felt pretty intact. I went to work Christmas Eve and there wasn't any issues (although I did pop the stickers in my bag just in case!). It wasn't till Christmas Day that they really started to lose their stickiness. Just before I opened my presents I had to re-stick 2 nails. During unwrapping, I lost 2, and by midday they were all ready to come off. So on average these lasted approx 2 days.

I loved the design on these, although not too sure of the average 'lifespan' of these once applied. They occasionally left a glue-type residue (which was the remnants of the sticker). This could easily be removed.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

My blog feed has been over-flowing with NY resolutions, and I told myself I'm not going to do one this but I do enjoy looking back on them once the year has passed, to actually see how motivated I have been. However, this year I'm going to break my resolutions into smaller sub categories, and try to avoid the common 'Try to lose weight' aims, cos lets face it, that's boring.

Health
❤ Drink more water. I honestly don't drink enough, of any fluid for that matter. If you poured all my daily fluids for one day together, I'd probably just fill 2 pint glasses. Not good. I forget how crucial water is to our bodies. Not only do we need it to digest food, but our vital organs need it as well in order to function properly and to send messages. Also it helps to oil our joints. I've noticed more pain in my knee joints this year, and this may well be a cause. I also suffer with headaches. I'll go through bouts of having headaches every single day for a few weeks on end. Again, this is probably a cause. Ok... before this turns into a biology lesson....

❤ Exercise (Yes, I know this is a common one but hear me out!). I don't do exercise, end of. I only do it when I'm on a mission to lose weight, which shouldn't be the case. At present, my body needs it more than ever now, so even if I drag my boyfriend out once a week for a long walk. One long walk is better than no walks at all.

Beauty
❤ Wash those flamin' make-up brushes more often. Uh, such a tedious task but really, germs galore on those things and I often one where those occasional blemishes come from on my cheeks. Blusher brush I'm looking at you.

❤ Have more regular hair cuts! Never been a hair person, and never probably will. I have a sister-in-law whose a hairdresser and it still doesn't change things. My hair is really long now and I haven't had a trim in a long time.

❤ This was on last years list, and although I tried, it never happened. Banish my nails of those horrid yellow stains from nail polish, which means wearing less dark colours and baring all occasionally (which is hard for me because I'm conscious of them!). It will also help if I'm not too lazy and start using a base coat EVERY time I paint my nails, and not just 'when I can be bothered'.

Hobbies/Interests

❤ Comping is a huge hobby of mine, sometimes that huge that as soon as I get in from work, I'm comping till bedtime. Because of this, I start to neglect other priorities (such as washing up.. oh the joy), so my housework occasionally suffers because I'm too busy being addicted. No matter how much of a buzz I get from it, I'm going to set myself a certain amount of hours each night.

❤ Have a blogging schedule. This has already been half compiled. I have monthly blog posts that I aim to cover each month. I may have set myself up to fail on this (because I really have to be in the mood to blog) but we'll see how we go.

❤ A new hobby came into my life at Christmas; sewing (with a machine, not by hand!). I aim to be able to do simple home accessories (i.e. shabby chic hanging heart garlands) by summer 2014. I'm a beginner, ok!

❤ This is a repeat from last year but - read a book a month. I really do love to read but I didn't manage to complete this - I think I read approx. 6-7 books in 2013, which actually isn't a great deal considering, but I recognize where I was going wrong. I was only reading in bed (and the occasional train/plane journey). Sometimes I drop into bed and I'm so tired that I just go straight to sleep, therefore not being able to pick a book up on a daily basis. So, from this year I will not keep my book on my bedside drawers, but move it around the house. Read it on the couch, whilst I'm waiting for food to be cooked, I may even take it to work and read on my dinner break, being the anti-social person I am.

Home Life
❤ Create a house chores schedule. It worked last time, it should work again.

❤ Decorate the hallway/landing and get it looking how it looks in my head

❤ Make the back bedroom more presentable (instead of a dumping ground!) and create a little 'office' space in there for me and my computer! I really miss sitting at a desk to type. I'm obsessed with stationary and notebooks, and everything having their own little place, so this will be a dream for me!

❤ Those little but annoying jobs that need doing round the house that you keep procrastinating about? Do them!

Me & My Outlook

❤ I'm not going to say stop worrying (because that would be impossible for me), but I've learnt over the past few months that its never as bad as it first appears. That situation that you've just been put in that's filled you with dread. Don't go home and fret about it all night, because when it happens, its never as bad as it first seemed, then you kick yourself for wasting all that time worrying.

❤ Lower my expectations. This is a biggy for me. This is what creates arguments. Peoples expectations of others are set too high, so when those expectations aren't met, frustration and anger set in. For example, (and a very common and real example in my life!) - I go to work and my boyfriend has a few days off - I arrive home from work expecting my tea to be waiting, and the house to be spotless. I walk through the door and the tea has only just been put in the oven, and the mess that was there before I left the house that morning? Its still there. I analyse the situation and realize that in fact my boyfriend has spent the entire day in front of the TV playing on his PS3, and hasn't moved a muscle till now. Frustration and anger sets in and I begin questioning him, asking him why he hasn't done anything. This gets a reaction and an argument begins to bubble. This is a very common argument in our household, and we've had many screaming matches over it, but I just have to learn that this is a man we're talking about. And yes, some men are very domesticated, but the majority? Far from it. I have to remind myself that its not in a mans nature do use their initiative to clean. And when they do do the cleaning, try not to be critical and think/tell them they've done a half-ar$ed job (they have, but lets not go there) and that its not up to your standards. You're a woman, and in terms of cleaning, you have different standards of home cleanliness to men, and clean in places they never even knew existed.